Monday, March 11
á
President Donald Trump released his fiscal year
2020 budget, which asks for $8.6 billion for his border wall and $2.7 trillion in spending cuts. As Politico
noted, ÒThe White House budget is a particularly meaningless document. A White
House budget is a list of priorities. It doesn't become law, or have any other
tremendous import otherwise. The budget is particularly useless this year,
since Democrats control the House.Ó
á Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission urging the agency's leaders to take a more aggressive stand toward Silicon Valley, starting with a series of investigations into tech companies for violating their users' privacy repeatedly over the past year.
á Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced that he and Speaker Nancy Pelosi have agreed to invite NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to address a joint session of Congress this spring in honor of NATOÕs 70th anniversary in April.
á
Pelosi announced, in an interview in the
Washington Post, that she is not in favor of impeaching Trump, saying ÒHeÕs
just not worth it.Ó
Tuesday, March 12
á The FBI charged dozens of wealthy parents, including celebrities Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, in a major cheating and bribery scheme to get their children admitted into some of the nation's most elite colleges, including bribing coaches and college administrators and paying off college entrance exam administrators to allow students to cheat on their tests.
á
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Director Francis Cissna said he is working to close
all the agencyÕs international offices and transfer the duties performed there
to domestic offices, embassies nd consulates.
Wednesday, March 13
á
Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was
sentenced in federal court to an additional 43 months in jail, on top of the
47-month sentence he received last week in a separate federal case. After he
was sentenced, prosecutors in New York announced a 16-count indictment charging
him with mortgage fraud, falsifying business records and conspiracy.
á
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont and
Wisconsin joined CaliforniaÕs lawsuit to have the national emergency declared
by Trump to divert money to building his wall overturned.
á
The American Civil Liberties Union released
documents showing that immigration agents have been tapping into a privately
maintained, for profit location tracking database to track people who may be in
the country illegally.
á
The formerly classified, so-called ÒPerfect
StormÓ memo was released in which top State Department officials warned that an
invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein could spark internal Iraqi chaos, Middle
East upheaval and threats to U.S. interests.
á
The Federal Aviation Administration finally
moved to ground the Boeing 737 Max 8, the aircraft involved in a fatal crash in
Ethiopia Sunday and another several months ago in Indonesia, following such
actions by China, the European Union, Canada and several other countries.
á
The Senate voted to end U.S. support for the
Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen by a vote of 54-46. The resolution must
still go to the House, where a
nearly identical resolution was passed earlier this year.
Thursday, March 14
á
A New York appeals court ruled that Trump is not
immune from a defamation lawsuit filed by a former ÒApprenticeÓ contestant,
Summer Zervos, and has said the trial can proceed.
á
Former Indiana Senator Birch Bayh
died at 91. He was one of the main architects of the 25th and 26th Amendments
to the Constitution, Title IX and the Equal Rights Amendment.
á
By a vote of 59-41, the Senate passed a
resolution, already passed in the House, that would overturn TrumpÕs
declaration of a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border.
á
The House voted overwhelmingly to urge the
Justice Department to publicly release the entire report of Special Counsel
Robert Mueller once it is completed, with 420 voting for the measure, no
representatives voting against and only four voting Òpresent.Ó
á
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a
lawsuit against Volkswagen, accusing the company of defrauding American
investors by its emissions fraud scheme, for which federal prosecutors filed
criminal indictments last year.
Friday, March 15
á
Trump used the first veto of his presidency to
reject the resolution condemning his national emergency declaration, and the
Congress does not appear to have the votes to overturn the veto, although
Pelosi immediately announced a March 26 vote to try. Fifty-five Republicans
would have to vote to overturn for it to pass the House.
á When asked whether white nationalism was a rising threat in the wake of the attacks on mosques in New Zealand that left 49 people dead, President Trump said: ÒI donÕt really. I think itÕs a small group of people.Ó
á Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin, sued the United States government, demanding it lift sanctions that he claimed have cost him billions of dollars
Saturday, March 16
á
No news to report.
Sunday, March 17
á
No news to report.